I was watching "Miri" the other day on YouTube and noticed that the "beaker full of death" is actually an Erlenmeyer flask. That would be like Spock calling a fork a spoon. What in-universe explanation would there be for a Vulcan scientist not knowing the name of a basic piece of lab equipment?
An Erlenmeyer flask of Death
- Thread starter Magickthise
- Start date
Words change meaning over the course of centuries. And English isn't Spock's first language anyway.
Plus it's a TV show, and one of the writers got it wrong. Or more likely, the prop guys got it wrong and didn't know the difference between the two, or couldn't find an actual beaker.
Knowing Nimoy, if he'd known the difference, he would have had the line corrected. "Flask full of death" sounds more ominous than "beaker full of death" anyway. "Beaker" is a funny word.
EDIT: I see the OP asked for an "in-universe" explanation. I don't think there could be one. As a scientist, Spock would surely know the difference.
Knowing Nimoy, if he'd known the difference, he would have had the line corrected. "Flask full of death" sounds more ominous than "beaker full of death" anyway. "Beaker" is a funny word.
EDIT: I see the OP asked for an "in-universe" explanation. I don't think there could be one. As a scientist, Spock would surely know the difference.
The blame probably lies with the prop department, and them getting the wrong item for the scene.
Minor problem, since this is the first time I've ever heard the term "Erlenmeyer flask."
Minor problem, since this is the first time I've ever heard the term "Erlenmeyer flask."
I always took the statement as an euphemism or a metaphor, not to be taken literally. Why would Spock mistake a beaker, then be appropriate in his notation of the contents being comprised of "death particles" or the like?
Spock: "It appears the Doc has whipped up a 'beaker-full-of-death'; want some?"
McCoy: "You should try my 'frying-pan-full-'o-kick-ass' punk!"
Spock: "It appears the Doc has whipped up a 'beaker-full-of-death'; want some?"
McCoy: "You should try my 'frying-pan-full-'o-kick-ass' punk!"
In an early version of the series bible, it mentions that Spock faked his credentials to get into Starfleet.
He really was just a receptionist at a Podiatrist's office.
Joe, noted Trek historian
^ I love these history lessons. 
How's this: individual doses would be decanted from the flask to a beaker? Of course, Spock is also holding a stoppered test tube filled with serum when he delivers the line, so he was merely being poetic (because "beaker full of death" clearly sounds better, metrically, than "flask full of death", right?) Or, perhaps, a similar vessel bears the designation bhi-khrrr in the Vulcan language.
It's a standard chem lab item, one any chemistry student in the hundred or so years prior to the episode's production would have known by that name. But apparently the guy on duty in the prop department that day wasn't a chemistry major, as you suggest, or else someone decided, in spite of the line in the script, that a beaker didn't look cool and science-y enough in the shot and used the E-flask instead. It wouldn't be the first time something like that had happened.
It's also worth noting that, despite his Vulcan training, Spock was not above being a smartass on occasion.
As far as in-universe is concerned, I'd say that Christopher's is the most likely: in the two to three hundred years between now and then, the term "beaker" had become loosely applicable to Erlenmeyer flasks as well. In many of our lifetimes, we've seen similar linguistic evolution: for example, many reputable grammarians think it's just fine to use "they" as the gender-neutral singular pronoun. Such usage was verboten when I was a kid.
Out-of-universe, of course, is that somebody fucked up. Trek is rife with such fuck ups.
Out-of-universe, of course, is that somebody fucked up. Trek is rife with such fuck ups.
And let's not forget about glassware evolution as well:
For more information on the "fleaker, " see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fleaker
True, he is quick with a retort.
D'oh!
Aw c'mon! If he'd said "Erlenmeyer flask full of death" on a sci fi TV show in the 60s, all the kids watching would have said "What? A what?" and any adults indulging their kids by watching with them would have just looked stupid, 'cause what Joe Average watching Trek in the 60s knew what a Erlenmeyer flask was?
They said beaker 'cause everyone in the audience knows what a beaker is.
They said beaker 'cause everyone in the audience knows what a beaker is.
But then why not show a beaker?
Rey, son of a bitchy
Rey, son of a bitchy
^ Hence, the aforementioned fuck-up.
Ha--I was hoping he would.
My own in-universe explanation would be that Spock, despite appearances to the contrary, was in fact succumbing to the disease, and slipped.
Spock was just "dumbing it down" for all the moronic, emotional humans he was forced to work with day in and day out with all their petty little problems and body odors, and the continual consumption of meat, and...
Guess he never really got over that whole Naked Time thing after all.
Guess he never really got over that whole Naked Time thing after all.
